Love to Ride and make your commute active

10 October 2016

The City is calling on all businesses and organisations to participate in the second annual workplace cycle challenge, Love to Ride Gold Coast, in November.

A part of the City’s Workplace Travel Program (WTP), a new initiative designed to get Gold Coast workers cycling, walking or catching public transport to work, Love to Ride aims to show how easy it is to include cycling in your daily commute.

Mayor Tom Tate said the WTP included free, downloadable resources for workplaces of all sizes.

“The idea is to show workplaces just how easy it is to encourage their employees to choose active forms of travel and in doing so, we’re helping to people to get fitter and easing congestion on our roads,” he said. “All the tools and resources (such as posters, factsheets and guides) are available to download for free and it takes minimal time to introduce.”

“Love to Ride is a fun, free challenge where just one 10 minute ride can help you get back on a bike and win great prizes. Last year, we had nearly 1000 Gold Coasters including more than 300 new riders join Love to Ride. Altogether, Gold Coasters rode 77,365 kilometres, or five times around Australia!”

Love to Ride and the Workplace Travel Program are key initiatives which support the mode share targets outlined in the Gold Coast City Transport Strategy 2031.

“By 2031 we aim for walking to be 8 per cent of all daily trips (up from 7.1 per cent in 2011) and cycling to represent 6 per cent of all daily trips (up from 1.9 per cent in 2011).”

Barry Robinson, President and Managing Director, Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific, said Love to Ride was a terrific challenge for Wyndham and complemented the company’s wellness program, Be Well.

“It gives us a great foundation to develop our workplace travel program and is one way for us to further promote the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle to our staff. We have noticed team members who have a more active start to the day seem to be more productive and heathier,” he said.

“We are looking forward to taking part in the challenge in November and want to make sure we win our category again!”